Copyright?
 

Kind of long but please stick with me.

So I'm looking to start a band but I'm a composer as well as a singer, so I have a lot of songs with instruments already written-in that I'd like someone else to play. Thing is, I'm open to collaborating, too. For example, I use digital drum loops when composing so now I'm looking for a drummer to write original tracks for the songs.

My understanding is that copyright goes to anyone who contributed to the song, so of course the drummer will be credited when they do what they do.

But my thing is, how do I protect my music when I'm shopping around for members? What happens if they like a part or the entire song but decide to ditch the band and take my music with them? I'm looking for members online also... obviously people want to hear what I can do. But the songs aren't finished for the aforementioned reason... can I still copyright what's there to protect what's mine?

I want to copyright my songs beforehand but don't know if I'll be able to edit that copyright when a drummer does contribute or a guitarist wants to tinker around with what I've set up...

Basically, how do I protect myself AND search for collaborators AND give credit where it's due?

I've heard of a guy who ran off with an album-full of material for a band he auditioned for and played with for 3 weeks and wrote none of the music. I don't want that to happen.

Any advice? The copyright forms don't seem to mention this.

I'm pretty sure copyright is automatic. Whatever you made, you have exclusive rights to. If you want, you can leave copies of your songs with a lawyer, who can prove you wrote the music in court. But I doubt anything that bad will actually happen to you. You just have to find trustworthy people.

If you're really serious about your music, register your stuff with the U.S. Copyright Office (assuming you're in the U.S.). It is true that everything you create gets automatic copyright protection, but registering your work(s) gives you an extra legal leg to stand on if you need to go to sue or something like that. It costs money to register every piece you make, and/or hire a lawyer to do it for you, but if that's something you want to do, having the official registration can be beneficial. For collaborations, you'd likely have to re-register a different work, with each person getting different credit parts. Not sure how that works, but a lawyer might.